Houses of Madness

Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Debjani Das

Unique focus combining neglected themes-issues of psychological health, imperial history, and the history of asylums in colonial Bengal

Highlights the significance of gender in shaping access to medical care and the common perceptions in society which have persisted till contemporary times

Lack of academic work available on the subject

Houses of Madness

Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Debjani Das

Description

Houses of Madness is an intriguing analysis of the history of mental asylums in nineteenth-century Bengal. It explores these institutions through several phases of their development, which not only involved changes in medical treatment and its interpretation of the mentally challenged, but also in the social composition of and the spatial distribution within mental institutions. By also locating the asylums both socially and geographically, it explains how mental illness was defined within these confines.

The book compares the medical practices in India and England and shows how changing definitions of insanity led to changes in the social composition of asylum inmates. Through a narration of the inmates daily life inside the asylums of colonial Bengal, Debjani Das addresses critical issues such as inmate labour in asylums and how male and female insanity were defined differently. These questions were directly related to, and also resulted in, the development of different types of treatments for mental illness, which ranged from the medical and moral to physical and mechanical restraint.

Houses of Madness

Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Debjani Das

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations List of Tables Acknowledgements Introduction 1 Madness and Madhouses of the Lower Provinces of Bengal 2 Treatment of the Insane: Conflict between Theory and Practice 3 Women in the Lunatic Asylums of Bengal 4 The Role of Asylum Staff in the Treatment of Insanity Conclusion Appendices Glossary Select Bibliography Index About the Author

Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Debjani Das

Author Information

Debjani Das is Assistant Professor, Department of History, Vidyasagar University, West Bengal, India. She works on the social history of medicine in colonial India.

Houses of Madness

Insanity and Asylums of Bengal in Nineteenth-century India

Debjani Das

Reviews and Awards

"[A] fascinating reconstruction of how a colonial power viewed mental illness among the indigenous population and the means they took to alleviate the issue ... the book contributes greatly to our understanding of the dynamics of psychological treatment in colonial Bengal" - Frank J. Korom, Asian Medicine